Until this September, I was a message board virgin. In fact, when a fellow editor told me last year that he had found most of his interview subjects for a story he was writing through message boards, I didn’t even know what he was talking about. He explained to me that there were two important things to remember about these online forums: the Internet contains message boards on virtually any topic you can fathom, and the majority of people who post on these forums are, like most online commenters, somewhat crazy.

The message board many students are probably most familiar with is Yahoo! Answers. Here, curious users throw a question out into the void of the Internet, and self-appointed “experts” do their best to provide answers. Often, a question will elicit five responses each presenting contradictory answers or proposing very different courses of action. While the site occassionally provides legitimate information, it is more often useful simply for the hilarity its many questions and answers afford. Another popular genre of message boards are baby name forums, where expectant parents post the option they are considering as a name for their unborn child, and ask for feedback. Because really, who better to help name your child than hordes of anonymous (and crazy) Internet users from across the globe?

Needless to say, until this fall I had never found a need to use a message board. In the midst of the extremely confusing and seemingly never-ending law school application process, I gave in. Looking for an answer about some minute facet of one school’s application, I did what anyone would do: I googled it. This led me to a message board specifically for prospective Canadian law students. After finding the answer to my question, I curiously began to click around on the other discussions. Three hours later, I knew I was in big trouble. The board provides a forum for any and all applicants from across the country to commiserate and ask questions. Its threads are divided by topics, such as LSAT or school comparisons, and by each individual law school.

For anxious applicants–myself included–disappointed by a lack of specific information provided by the schools on their admissions policies, and desperate for any fragment of information, this message board seemed to be an endless repository of information. I found myself scanning the “IN” threads from as far back as 2007, comparing my GPA and LSAT scores to those who were admitted in that cycle. Other threads debated the extent to which each school emphasizes “soft” factors like extracurriculur activities, while others debated law school rankings and reputations. For the next week, I spent endless hours on the site. I checked it every time I was near a computer. I compared my stats to every other poster, and felt sick to my stomach as the “Accepted!” threads started to appear. With my applications completed and submitted, and nothing to do but wait, reading the message boards offered a measure of catharsis.

I quickly realized, however, that the majority of posters had the exact same level of knowledge as I did. Everyone who answered was basing their response on pure speculation, or, at best, information they found in threads from previous years. Rumours, anecdotes, and information from “my cousin who went to law school” made up the bulk of the “information” that these forums provide. By far the most common thread is titled something like “Chances?” Here, an individual will post their stats, then ask other users to speculate what their odds of being admitted to that school are, similar in some ways to baby name forums. Armed with little more than the average entering grades from the previous year, which each school publishes, fellow applicants respond with either yes or no, despite the fact that they have no real knowledge to go on.

If you’re applying to any grad school or professional school, there is likely one of these message boards focused on your program somewhere on the Internet. Be warned: they may provide mild catharsis and the impression of being in the know, but in reality no one posting actually has any more information than you. When the acceptance and rejection letters start getting mailed out, the boards become even more treacherous. It can be nice to know that the letters are coming, but disheartening when it seems that all the other posters have gotten in except you. I don’t think most of the commenters on these grad school boards are crazy, however; they’re just regular university students desperate for information about their prospects for future education. I’ve now managed to reign in my addiction–I only check the website for updates once a day. And even though I fell victim to the black hole of law school message boards, I don’t think I’ll be turning to the Internet when it comes time to name my children.